We played a lot last weekend and came across the hired guns in some of our missions. We were not sure whether we played them right. Therefore I want to pick your brains:

As far as I understand the rules the "parting shot" ability on the card is disabled since it contains the word "may". Correct? So no shooting from a hired gun when you deal damage up to the health level.

It seem like they tried to balance this with a new ability in the app which reads like "Attack rebel xyz. When the target suffered 2 or more damage from your attack you are defeated". It also comes with the ability "at the end of your activation reinforce 1 hired gun..." (can't remember the words exactly).

To us this didn't make sense at all: So you go and attack. If you deal too much damage you are defeated. At the end of a round you can reinforce.

What was the reason for building the hired guns like that? It sounds really odd. Especially since the ability provides a total twist to the original figure. Originally hired guns got a guaranteed attack and could sometimes attack twice in a round (when they were defeated). Now they get killed when they attack and can reinforce. If rebels shot them they cannot attack back. Anybody any idea?

If it says "at the end of your activation", it is not at the end of a round - it happens at the end of the figure's activation. And that reinforced figure would activate straight afterwards as part of the group's activation.

As mentioned...I can't remember precisely the words. Could also be "at the end of the group activation" or so.

My main concern was that the behavior changed completely...and whether we played it correctly or not. (no parting shot from the card -> which is usually a benefit for the imp as it guarantees an attack; but parting shot from the app -> which is punishing for the imp as the figure may die after the attack)

47 minutes ago, Whitebubble said:

As mentioned...I can't remember precisely the words. Could also be "at the end of the group activation" or so.

My main concern was that the behavior changed completely...and whether we played it correctly or not. (no parting shot from the card -> which is usually a benefit for the imp as it guarantees an attack; but parting shot from the app -> which is punishing for the imp as the figure may die after the attack)

The instruction list for regular Hired Guns says to resolve a normal attack action first. After it is resolved you do the app version of parting shot (which is not an action, so if it survives you actually do a move to action). This means IF the hired guns activate the FIRST figure is guaranteed to attack twice. Reinforcement triggers after the group's activation. I assume at least one hired gun most have survived to allow for reinforcement(?) even thought it does not explicitly say so. But since you have to deploy reinforcement as close as possible to "another figure in this group" it makes sense that at least one hired gun must still be on the map. See the screen shot below. It contains mission spoiler :

So you agree that the app version provides the rebels a parting shot whereas the original card version provides the hired guns a parting shot

Why is it guaranteed that they attack twice? Even if they activate first, attack, do more than 2 damage, are defeated and are reinforced at the end of the group's activation (one figure only) the rebels can attack this figure as next step and kill it. Then no parting shot is triggered and each hired gun was only able to attack once or am I missing something? If they are not activated first rebels could take that group out and the hired guns did not attack at all.

Fully agree that you cannot reinforce more than the initial group was.

But still, this to me indicates, that as rebels you want to kill those guys before they activate. In a traditional campaign/skirmish you always have to think twice because of parting shot.
I am wondering why they built it like that (attack, become defeated, reinforce).

One more question: If there is only one figure left and that figure activates to attack and becomes defeated it can not be reinforced at the end of the activation, right? (as there is no figure left in the group to be reinforced to)

1 hour ago, Whitebubble said:

So you agree that the app version provides the rebels a parting shot whereas the original card version provides the hired guns a parting shot

Why is it guaranteed that they attack twice? Even if they activate first, attack, do more than 2 damage, are defeated and are reinforced at the end of the group's activation (one figure only) the rebels can attack this figure as next step and kill it. Then no parting shot is triggered and each hired gun was only able to attack once or am I missing something? If they are not activated first rebels could take that group out and the hired guns did not attack at all.

The way I see this is as follow :

First instruction is an attack-action that lets you move 5 and attack "rebel priority target". You do so. Then the next instruction in the list is Parting Shot (which does not cost an action) and it says : Attack "rebel priority target". If the target suffered 2 or more damages, this figure is defeated. Limit once per group. So I don't think Parting Shot applies to the result of the first attack-action. Parting Shot seems to be an instruction (action-free) in itself that let you attack a second time irrespective of what happened during the first instruction (which is the attack-action).

Otherwise, Parting Shot would have said something like "If you already attacked and the target suffered 2 or more damage, this figure is defeated". Instead, Parting Shot tells you to attack again (provided you could attack first with the "move 5 to attack" instruction. But if even after moving 5 you could not attack (let'say you still not have line of sight after moving 5), then you would skip the attack-action. You would also skip Parting Shot for the same reason, and then you would just resolve the 2 move actions. So that is why the first figure to activate is "guaranteed" to have 2 attacks (IF it can attack at least once and IF it can activate, i.e. the rebels did not defeat them before they activate) ... ok I admit there are a few conditions to fulfill for a 2-attack "guarantee". But the thing is if you can attack once then you WILL attack a second time.

1 hour ago, Whitebubble said:

But still, this to me indicates, that as rebels you want to kill those guys before they activate. In a traditional campaign/skirmish you always have to think twice because of parting shot.
I am wondering why they built it like that (attack, become defeated, reinforce).

Yes, depending on what is still on the board, I might want to take them out before they activate.

1 hour ago, Whitebubble said:

One more question: If there is only one figure left and that figure activates to attack and becomes defeated it can not be reinforced at the end of the activation, right? (as there is no figure left in the group to be reinforced to)

Yes, that is my understanding.

43 minutes ago, Whitebubble said:

Why is it guaranteed that they attack twice? Even if they activate first, attack, do more than 2 damage, are defeated and are reinforced at the end of the group's activation (one figure only) the rebels can attack this figure as next step and kill it.

As @IanSolo_FFG stated, if the Hired Guns activate before they are defeated by the Rebels, only one Hired Gun is guaranteed to attack twice (if it has a legal target). According to the screenshot @IanSolo_FFG provided, the Parting Shot attack is a separate attack from the one in the first instruction.

First Instruction: Move 5 to attack.
Second Instruction: If this is the first figure in the group to use Parting Shot this activation, then attack and become defeated if the target suffered at least 2 damage.

If the figure has a legal target for each instruction then that's a guaranteed two attacks for only one of the Hired Guns.

So, do the Hire Guns seem nerfed in the app version compared to the classic campaign? They do seem to get extra movement points and more reinforcements.

Oh... I see! Then we played it completely wrong! We understood that if the first attack deals 2 DMG he would be defeated.

This is changing everything but it makes sense now. Thanks a lot guys!

6 hours ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

The way I see this is as follow :

First instruction is an attack-action that lets you move 5 and attack "rebel priority target". You do so. Then the next instruction in the list is Parting Shot (which does not cost an action) and it says : Attack "rebel priority target". If the target suffered 2 or more damages, this figure is defeated. Limit once per group. So I don't think Parting Shot applies to the result of the first attack-action. Parting Shot seems to be an instruction (action-free) in itself that let you attack a second time irrespective of what happened during the first instruction (which is the attack-action).

This is how I did it.

The issue I had with hired guns is if one unit is dead, the other uses parting shot and dies thus defeating the group, and at the end you respawn one next to the other.

I played that once the group was defeated the activation immediately ended and the figure does not respawn since the group is defeated and there is not another hired gun to spawn next to.

I think it just that you cannot reinforce a defeated group - it must be in play - so when the last figure is defeated, the group is defeated and reinforce becomes a null action.

Seems like a simple house rule if people want something that makes more sense strategically: only perform parting shot if there is a second figure to be reinforced. In this case the lone Hired Gun would perform his first attack action, skip parting shot, perform his second action, and then reinforce.